The Mystical Theology

Dionysius the Areopagite

The Mystical Theology

Dionysius the Areopagite

Περὶ μυστικῆς θεολογίας

The Mystical Theology (De mystica theologia) is the shortest and densest treatise of the Corpus Dionysiacum, addressed to Timothy. In five brief chapters it teaches the ascent beyond every affirmation and negation to union with God 'in the divine darkness' of unknowing — the theology of negation that Aquinas cites most among Dionysius's works and that anchors the scholastic doctrine of God's incomprehensibility. Moses' ascent of Sinai and the Apache Bartholomew's 'theology of much and least' frame the movement through causes to the Cause itself, Who is beyond every assertion and every removal. Schola presents the Greek text with the Latin translation of Balthasar Corderius (as printed in Migne PG3, 1857) and the English translation of John Parker (1897).

CAPUT I. Quaenam sit divina caligo.

CAPUT II. Quomodo oporteat etiam uniri, ac laudes referre, omnium auctori, qui est supra omnia.

CAPUT III. Quae sint affirmantes de Deo locutiones, quæ negantes.

CAPUT IV. Quod nihil rerum sensibilium sit is, qui omnis rei sensilis secundum excellentiam est auctor.

Dicimus ergo, causam omnium, et quae supra omnia est, nec essentiae, nec vitae, nec rationis, nec mentis expertem esse, neque corpus exsistere, neque figuram, neque qualitatem aut quantitatem aut molem habere, neque in loco esse, neque videri, neque tactum sensilem habere, neque sentire, nec sub sensum cadere, nec inordinationem admittere aut perturbationem a passionibus materialibus excitatam, nec imbecillem esse et sensilibus casibus obnoxium; neque lucis indigum exsistere, neque mutationem aut corruptionem, neque fluxum, neque quidquam eorum quae sensibilia sunt, vel esse, vel habere.

CAPUT V. Quod nihil rerum intellectilium sit is qui omnis rei intellectilis secundum excellentiam est auctor.

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